


Clothing Slit

by redcandle17



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Humor, Nux Lives, Slit Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-07
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-19 14:34:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4749935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redcandle17/pseuds/redcandle17
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Toast makes it her mission to make the War Boys, especially Slit, wear shirts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Clothing Slit

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Одеть Слита](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5719597) by [vttstn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vttstn/pseuds/vttstn)



Toast wasn’t comfortable in the repair bays and training areas. The Boys weren’t hostile anymore and if their gazes lingered on her too long, well, that was only human. But she couldn’t forget that they’d literally worshipped Joe. She needed to learn more about cars and practice using weapons, though, so she persevered. It was made more difficult by the fact that War Boys seemed to speak a language of their own. 

The only solution Toast could think of was getting Nux to teach her, with Capable serving as his translator. He was enthusiastically explaining how to determine what was wrong with a vehicle based on what noises it made, when Toast’s attention was diverted. 

“What is that?!” she exclaimed.

Capable and Nux both turned to look. Then they looked back at her, seemingly confused. 

“What?” Capable asked. 

Toast pointed to the War Boy walking - if you could call the way he moved walking - across the opposite end of the bay. “That thing. What is it?”

Nux’s look of confusion intensified. “You mean Slit?”

“If that’s his name. Why is he doing that?”

“Doing what?” Capable asked. “He’s only walking, Toast.”

Nux was a War Boy himself and used to being surrounded by his brothers; she couldn’t expect him to realize what she was seeing. And, Capable, sadly, had become too used to the company of War Boys. 

“It’s obscene,” she said. 

Capable and Nux exchanged a look. Then Capable gently put an arm around Toast’s shoulders and steered her away from the car. “I think the guzzoline fumes are affecting you.” 

It wasn’t gasoline fumes, but Toast didn’t argue. She’d made up her mind about something she’d been thinking about for a while. Part of what made it uncomfortable to be around War Boys and Repair Boys was their permanent state of half-nakedness. How she was to concentrate on explanations of which vehicle was better suited to her when the Repair Boys had sweat slowly dripping down the well-defined muscles of their chests?

Toast took her case to Furiosa. “I understand there has to be uniformity because that’s what they’re used to and they are still an army, but surely they could get matching shirts the same place they get all those identical black pants?” 

Furiosa’s lips had an odd quirk, and Toast suspected she was amused, but she treated the matter seriously. “There’s a buried shopping plaza where Joe got a lot of his supplies from. We’d leave the surrounding area rigged with traps and explosives to prevent other scavengers from accessing it. I can organize a supply run.” She added, “It’ll give the Boys something to do.” 

Toast was thrilled with this plan, but she declined command of the supply run. She wasn’t ready to spend several days on the road with War Boys. 

One of them needed to go with the War Boys, though, to look for things a War Boy wouldn’t know enough to realize they might need… and because none of them trusted the Boys not to attack innocent people if left unsupervised. Capable volunteered to go. She and Nux seemed very happy about the excursion. 

Toast was not so happy with what they brought back. Capable had brought some excellent clothes for the women, but what she’d brought for the War Boys was a disappointment. A flimsy white sleeveless undershirt wasn’t much of an improvement over them going shirtless. 

“It was the only thing I could find hundreds of the same thing in a broad range of sizes,” Capable said apologetically. 

She’d gotten a variety of other shirts for Nux. He wasn’t just any random War Boy. Though they hadn’t officially bestowed a rank or title on him, it was understood by everyone. 

The War Pups were excited to receive their new shirts. Their older brethren were more dubious, and only Toast seemed to realize that these shirts actually drew more attention to their arms and shoulders. She was feeling dismayed already when there was the commotion of a War Boy refusing to accept a shirt. 

It was the one with the obscene walk. He was posed against the wall like a whore trying to entice customers. Again no one but Toast seemed to see anything wrong with him. 

“You have to wear it,” she said. “It’s part of the uniform now.”

“I don’t want to,” he said. “What’s that you wives talk about? ‘Bodily integrity’? Making me wear a shirt violates my bodily integrity!”

“No, it doesn’t! That’s not what we meant and you know it!”

He scoffed. 

“Take the damn shirt and put it on!” She took a step towards him, tempted to try physically forcing it onto him.

He pushed away from the wall and crossed his arms over his chest, glaring down at her. “No.” 

They were at an impasse. Toast refused to go running to Furiosa. The War Boys would never respect her authority if she needed Furiosa to enforce her commands every time. 

“Fine,” she said. “You don’t get any food until you put on a shirt, War Boy.” 

Toast didn’t sleep well that night. She was angry and guilty and even angrier, and punching her pillow only made her feel a little bit better. 

She expected the War Boy to be ready to submit by morning, but he stubbornly sat there with his arms crossed while his brothers ate their morning meal. 

Toast scarcely managed to eat her own meal. It was hard to swallow with her throat choked close by anger. 

Capable and Nux came to her mid-afternoon. Nux looked worried and Capable was giving Toast her best beseeching look. 

“Slit is real stubborn,” Nux said. “If anyone could starve himself intentionally, it’s him.” 

“He’s a bratty child!” Toast snapped. 

“He’s proud of the scars on his stomach,” Capable said. 

Toast was aghast. “It looks like that wound healed without closing all the way! It’s disgusting!”

Capable shook her head. “Not that one, the ones he cut into himself. It’s art, I guess.” 

He’d done that to himself?! She was horrified - and a little impressed by his ability to maintain fine motor control while in pain.

Still, Toast refused to relent until Slit missed the evening meal. She decided to try asking nicely. 

“Look, I don’t want to punish you. I just need you to wear a shirt like everybody else.” 

He didn’t reply.

“Please, Slit, just put on the shirt and I’ll get you double rations of food.”

Toast tugged at her hair in frustration. It was that or attempt to wring this War Boy’s neck. And suddenly she had an idea. 

“Come with me,” she said. 

That order, at least, he followed. 

Toast took him to Joe’s old room. It was still as he’d left it. She and her sisters and Furiosa needed to sort through his things, but none of them had been able to muster the will to do it yet. 

“This is the Immortan’s quarters,” Slit said, awe in his voice. 

“Yes,” Toast said. She rummaged through the wardrobe, certain that Joe would have at least one shirt. He did. What must be his old military dress uniform hung neatly assembled on a hanger. 

She pulled off the jacket and tossed it aside, then carefully removed the long-sleeved white shirt and held it out to Slit. “And this is his shirt.”

Slit snatched it from her eagerly and slid his arms into it. He buttoned it up and stared at her with a delighted expression, as if waiting to be told how he looked. 

Toast reached out gingerly and poked the hem of the shirt beneath his belt. “It looks better tucked in.”

He waved his arms and then rolled up the sleeves to his elbows, exposing the scar-art on his forearms. He gave her a look as if he expected her to object to him wearing the shirt improperly. 

Toast couldn’t. The shirt fit him well. Very well. Too well. He looked good, which was something Toast never thought she’d have ever thought of any War Boy. 

“Yeah,” he said, looking pleased at whatever he saw on her face. “I’m shiny and chrome for a half life.”

It was only in Joe’s domain that people were divided into half lives and full lives. Out in the rest of the Wasteland, even the healthy had their lives cut short by starvation or violence more often than not and so it made no sense to classify people by assumed life expectancy. 

“You’re ‘shiny and chrome’ by any standard,” Toast admitted grudgingly. “Now go get some food.”

**Author's Note:**

> Take a look at http://indiasierrabravo.tumblr.com/post/128096728802/a-short-comic-commissioned-by-redcandle17-your and http://indiasierrabravo.tumblr.com/post/128290507967/sketch-commission-for-redcandle17-who-is-a


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